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Inconsistency of Biography of Tsien Hsue-Shen

Tsien Hsue-Shen, an expert of mechanics, the “King of Rocketry” of China, lived in US for twenty years long. Iris Chang (by a book in 1995) and Judith R. Goodstein (by a report of a conversation with Lee Alvin DuBridge in 2003) gave accounts of Tsien’s biography. In 2013, “Exhibition of Achievements of People’s Scientist Tsien Hsue-Shen” toured to universities in Shanghai and Chinese cities of Beijing, Kunming, Chengdu, Wuhan, Lanzhou and Huhehaote, displaying a different version of Tsien’s activities in US and declaring that Tsien read and studied, with great concentration, the philosophy of Marxism during his stay in US. In the present article, the Marxism reading is questioned, interpreting that Tsien’s success stems from the technology that he learned in US rather than the philosophy of Marxism. Tsien left behind puzzles, as well as rockets, missiles and satellites, as his legacy. His legend remains mysterious and inconsistent even today.